Florence Houston

Florence Houston (b. 1989) lives and works in London. Classically trained in Florence, she honed her technique until able to concentrate wholly on her subject, without thinking about her medium. Houston paints nostalgic, familiar, everyday objects, exploring their conflicting characteristics and societies preconceived regard for them. Florence started painting jellies in 2021 after collaborating with food stylist Lou Kenney, inspired by illustrations of ornate Victorian jellies and childhood memories of eating them from paper plates. She’s drawn to their opposing characteristics, finding them both beautiful and grotesque. She also looks to explore a modern trait in food created more for decorative purporses and less for its pleasure in eating.

Houston has taken part in numerous group shows and recently had her first solo exhibition at J/M Gallery in 2023. She has also exhibited with The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and The Royal Society of British Artists, where she was given the Edward Wesson Award for Watercolour Painting.